I hate to say it but Staal has been disappointing thus far. He doesnt seem to be to upset that he isnt scoring or getting opportunities to score. He won't go to the places where you score goals and he seems to be losing one on one battles way too much. Fedatenko is my odds on fav to be this seasons whipping boy. He reminds me an awful lot of Wayne Primeau in that he can NEVER make the simple play.

Interesting poll. Staal, while he has still been solid defensively and has been good on the penalty kill, has been completely underwhelming offensively. Satan is a whipping boy because he has been bad in his own end and at even strength, but he has been 100% demonic when it comes to putting the puck in the net on rebounds and other must-score garbage scenarios.

As far as whipping boy getting more criticism than I think he deserves, I'd say people get pretty down on Satan. I've been pretty happy with him. I've been holding off on the Staal whipping in that I don't know what good it will do and my opinion doesn't mean much when it comes to hockey. He has been good with the PK but I was pretty disappointed in him last night. Enough to say something here, anyway.

I guess what I've been wondering is if Staal is very happy playing here. Of course the same question was raised about Geno and that's been answered at least for a few years.

I'm still a Staal supporter. Yes, the OT penalty might have been a bit stupid (though I could see what he was trying to do...lift the stick to open up the passing lanes), but the way he reacted without his stick, when he had almost reached the bench, suggests that there was an odd man rush developing that he had to break up.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that Letang is working his way onto this list with a bit of an early sophomore slump (just as I had predicted in the off-season).

I have to say my choice is Staal. I'm not happy with his play and effort. Why was he so much better at age 18 than he is now at age 20?

I'd like to see Tank and the Cooke monster give us some secondary scoring now and then (and yeah I know Cooke has been hurt). I'd also like to see them make the kind of hits that gets the team jacked up. That is something Ruutu used to give us and these guys need to fill that hole.

A whipping boy is a scapegoat, they get blamed for everything that goes wrong. Recchi fit that description when he was here. And right now on the board, its absolutely Satan.

meh. in retrospect, i stand by all my recchi criticisms. he really did play like crap for major chunks of every year he was here. if a whipping boy was someone who doesn't deserve whipping, recchi was no whipping boy.

I think he will turn it around, but right now I have my eye on Staal. I give all the Pens a bit of time to adjust and get into the season before any judgement though - Staal is just leading the race. If he didn't score all those goals his first year than maybe its a different story, though. He has been switching positions and linemates, etc - so give him some time first.